There is no better guide to the New Europe than T.R. Reid and his book "The United States of Europe". With his trademark combination of information, analysis, and wit, Reid reviews the reasons why Europe has come together. He offers a thoroughly engaging look at the emerging "Generation E" and its Euroculture, with its common cuisine, language, pop music, sport, intoxicant, fears, and faith (or lack of it), and a shared commitment to a comfortable but expensive welfare state. The new Europe is a place where college education is free, doctors still make house calls (with no bill to pay), and corporate "downsizing" is against the law. As Reid demonstrates, Europe can afford all that because Americans are paying the EU's military bills.
At a time when an upstart currency called the euro is trumping the almighty dollar on global markets, Americans need to learn about the serious global challenge across the sea. In the "United States of Europe" Reid makes this essential lesson both informative and delightfully entertaining.
Why is it so important to take a closer look at what's going on in Europe? One of the major reasons is that "The new United States of Europe - to use Winston Churchill's phrase - has more people, more wealth, and more trade than the United States of America. The new Europe cannot match American military strength (and doesn't want to, for that matter). But it has more votes in every international organization than the United States, and it gives away far more money in development aid. The result is global economic and political clout that makes the European Union exactly what its leaders want it to be: a second superpower that can stand on equal footing with the United States.
Here is another reason for taking a thorough look accross the Atlantic Ocean: Europe's achievements in health care are undeniably remarkable : "The unified Europe has higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, lower rates of heart disease and cancer, and health insurance that covers every person - all for about half as much per capita as the United States spends."
For those who think of the European Union as an economic entity, a free-trade zone and little more, it is so important to understand "the enormous hunger for peace that motivated the union in the first place... and the ambitious effort to create a continent so integrated, so connected, that war will be impossible". We should always remember the four years of the World War I that virtually eliminated a whole generation of the continent's young men.
One of the most interesting chapter is "Generation E and the Ties That Bind the New Europe" analyzing a new type of European: a person who considers the entire continent - not just one country or city - to be "home", where "a college grad from Doublin would routinely find herself working in Lisbon or Helsinki".
Reid is the author of three books in Japanese and five in English, including "The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution."
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